Who Needs Copy Machines Anymore?
A telling anecdote from Fred Wilson:
With my phone in hand, I looked up at the young man helping me and said “can you make a photocopy of this page so I can take it home with me?” He looked straight at my phone and said “that has a camera in it, right?”
I felt silly and chuckled. My friends who were with me laughed at me and the irony of the situation. I snapped a picture of the sheet of paper… The phone worked perfectly for that situation. The young man was right. No need for an expensive photocopier… all of his customers are carrying smart phones.
Image via Photo Copying Tips blog on the History of the Photocopier Machine:
A patent attorney called Chester Carlson invented a procedure known as electronica photography in Oct 1937 that was then re-named to Xerography in 1938. The actual “10-22-38 Astoria” had been the very first known photocopy. The Xerography duplicating processes become probably the most well known innovations of the Twentieth century. Carlson became rich from the creation and created a brand new billion dollar industry and obtained globe recognition.
A global industry that may be, anecdotaly, nearing its end.
2 Responses to “Who Needs Copy Machines Anymore?”
Whats wrong with photo copies when best quality isn’t needed for documents. It also comes down to storage space and costs.
How many pages are being copied? Is a hard copy really necessary? How many copies do you need? These are all questions that come up when wondering about this one. If I need a dozen copies of a 50 page document for a meeting then I definitely need a copying machine if I didn’t generate the document initially.